CARN/Bochco Pangolin Conservation Grant (Historical Reference; Up to US$10,000)

CARN/Bochco Pangolin Conservation Grant (Historical Reference; Up to US$10,000)

The CARN/Bochco Pangolin Conservation Grant supported African graduate students and early-career professionals conducting research to improve pangolin conservation. The Conservation Action Research Network (CARN) established the program in 2026 to address research and funding gaps for African pangolins. Its official program page now says the grant is closed. The official flyer gives 1 August 2026 as the application deadline, and CARN has not announced a subsequent application cycle on the program page. This page records the completed call; it is not an invitation to apply now.

Current status

CARN’s official Bochco Pangolin Grant Program page states that the program is currently closed. The official 2026 flyer said the deadline to apply was 1 August 2026. No later deadline or opening date for a new round appears on the program page. The separate CARN application page describes how the 2026 submission was prepared, but the program’s closed status means those instructions should be treated as historical requirements, not as evidence that submissions remain open.

The deadline field above preserves the real closing date for the completed call. It is a past date by design because the page is an archive entry. CARN’s public status statement takes precedence over any application form that may still be reachable online. Applicants should not send a 2026 application or assume that the old form, template, eligibility rules, or award amount will apply if CARN opens the program again.

Purpose and research focus

CARN created the Bochco Pangolin Conservation Grant to help address knowledge and funding shortfalls affecting African pangolins. The program supported graduate students and early-career African scientists pursuing research relevant to the conservation of these threatened mammals. CARN describes pangolins as exceptionally difficult to observe and says that important gaps remain in knowledge of their ecology, life history, and the effects of hunting and trade. Research that can inform science-based conservation was the central rationale for the grant.

The program covered four African species: the white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis), giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea), black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla), and ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii). A proposal needed to focus on at least one of these species. CARN specifically prioritized projects emphasizing field-based conservation research. The published criteria do not establish a required research method, site, or minimum project duration, so those should not be inferred from the short description of the award.

For an applicant preparing for a possible future round, the 2026 focus suggests that a useful proposal would explain the conservation question, how work with one or more of the named species would answer it, and why the findings could support pangolin protection. That is practical interpretation of the stated research purpose, not an additional formal scoring rubric published by CARN. Any later call may define its own methods, priorities, and deliverables.

Award amount and limitations

The 2026 call offered grants of up to US$10,000. The official application page said a requested budget above $10,000 would not be considered and that tuition fees could not be covered. The ceiling is a maximum, not a promise that every successful project would receive that amount. The public materials do not specify a minimum award, payment schedule, project period, matching contribution, or post-award reporting schedule.

In the completed call, the requested budget belonged in the application document and also had to be entered in the form. Costs needed to fit the research project and remain within the stated ceiling. Because CARN explicitly excluded tuition, applicants could not use the grant to pay tuition charges. The page does not publish a more detailed eligible-cost list, so it would be inaccurate to present particular expenses—such as equipment, travel, salaries, permits, or laboratory work—as automatically allowable. A future applicant should check the guidelines for that cycle and ask CARN about any cost whose eligibility is unclear.

Who was eligible in 2026

The official program page required applicants to be citizens of one of the listed countries. The list was Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The 2026 application form requested a nationality selection. Its requirements specify citizenship; they should not be paraphrased as residence alone.

Applicants also had to be current graduate students or early-career professionals who had received a degree within the previous five years. The application page adds a qualification for people who were unemployed: they needed a graduate degree or had to be actively pursuing one. Students were asked to list their current university, while early-career professionals were asked to list their employer. The published instructions do not give a separate age limit or state that every applicant must hold a particular job title.

The proposed project had to focus on at least one of the four African pangolin species, and CARN gave priority to field-based conservation research. These criteria describe the closed 2026 round only. CARN may change citizenship lists, career-stage definitions, or research priorities in a later call, so the archived list should not be used to judge eligibility for a future year.

What the 2026 application required

CARN’s application page instructed candidates to download the English pangolin application template, complete each section, combine all sections into one PDF, and upload that completed document through the form. The page also links to a French version of the application route, and states that applications are accepted in English and French. Applicants were expected to follow the template’s instructions; CARN warned that incomplete applications and submissions that did not follow instructions would not be considered.

The final PDF had to contain these items in this order:

1. A cover page.
2. The project proposal.
3. A budget, with no more than US$10,000 requested.
4. A curriculum vitae.
5. Two letters of recommendation, on official letterhead and signed.

The application form asked for a project title and budget, then required the applicant to upload the completed application document as a PDF. It also collected the applicant’s name, affiliation, mailing address, email address, phone number, year of birth, gender, and nationality. Student applicants were asked to identify their university; early-career professionals were asked to identify their employer. The public form described a 64 MB upload limit for the PDF. These are details of the former form, not a promise that a future portal will collect the same information or use the same technical limits.

CARN stated that each applicant could submit one application and that multiple submissions in one year would not be considered. Its instructions also said not to include tuition in the budget, not to exceed the funding cap, and to submit a complete PDF that followed the template. These requirements matter because the application page explicitly warned that exceeding the budget ceiling, submitting incomplete materials, or ignoring instructions could disqualify an application.

How the past application process worked

For the 2026 round, the process began by opening the application guidance from CARN’s application page and choosing the appropriate language. The applicant completed the template, assembled the five required components in the specified sequence, and combined them as a single PDF. They then filled in the online form and uploaded the document. The form’s budget entry and the budget section in the PDF needed to agree, and both had to respect the maximum request.

A prospective applicant in that cycle would have needed to make sure that the proposal concerned one or more of the four listed species and emphasized field-based conservation work to align with the stated priority. They also needed to confirm their citizenship and student or early-career status against the eligibility criteria before preparing the full packet. These are practical steps derived from the published requirements; CARN did not publish a separate checklist beyond its application instructions.

The program page recommends CARN’s grant-writing tutorial videos, developed in partnership with the Congo Basin Institute, to help applicants prepare stronger applications. The videos may remain useful general guidance, but they do not reopen the 2026 competition. There is no current deadline to work toward, and the former application form should not be treated as accepting applications merely because it remains accessible.

What is not known from the published materials

The official materials reviewed for this reference give the 2026 deadline, award ceiling, eligible applicant groups and nationalities, eligible species, field research priority, required document sequence, submission format, and language options. They do not state when a new call will open, whether the grant will recur, when 2026 applicants were notified, how long funded projects would run, or what reporting obligations awardees would have. They also do not disclose a minimum award or detailed review rubric. None of those details should be filled in with assumptions.

If CARN announces another round, applicants should begin with the organization’s official program page and use the new call’s own dates, application materials, and rules. Confirm that the cycle is open before preparing or sending documents. For questions about the program, CARN lists [email protected] as its contact address. This archive reflects the published 2026 call and cannot confirm future terms.

Official sources

• CARN/Bochco Pangolin Conservation Grant program — current status, program purpose, eligibility, species, research priority, and award ceiling.
• CARN/BOCHCO Pangolin Conservation Grant 2026 flyer — 2026 call and deadline.
• CARN Pangolin Grant application page — archived 2026 application instructions and submission requirements.